DE102012006150A1 - Central belt system of a picking system - Google Patents

Abstract

In a central belt system (1) with article shafts (2), ejectors (5) and moving central belt (4) and central control unit (6), it is proposed, for the articles to be controlled on the moving central belt (4), to communicate with the control unit (6) ) connected automatic control system (7 ') with connected image processing unit (8) and a camera system (9, 10) optionally together with illumination system (11). Camera and lighting system (9, 10) are set, and to be checked on the central belt (4) chaotically arranged articles are ejected from the ejector (5) so that optical shadowing of the controlled article on the central belt (4) preferably just prevented.

Description

The invention relates to a central belt system of a picking system according to the preamble of claim 1.

In a known central belt system, a centrally guided conveyor belt (central belt) moves in the direction of withdrawing container conveyor technology. The order containers are stopped in front of the central belt and stopped for a certain duration, that all articles of the central belt, which are intended for a particular order, fall into the container.

Above the central belt, articles are kept in stock in A-shaped arranged article shafts. There is an ejector per product slot. The ejectors are timely activated by a central control unit so that all articles belonging to a job are accumulated on an ever-increasing pile on the passing central belt.

At the end of the central band is occasionally connected to a riser. This is needed to lift items to the possibly higher-carrying container conveyor technology.

The central belt moves in normal operating mode at a speed of about 1 m / s.

Image processing is already established in the quality control of manufacturing companies. For example, imprints on containers are checked for completeness, mechanical components are examined for production errors, etc. The objects to be checked can be stopped for checking or even checked during the movement. However, it is always known where in the room is the property to be checked of the object. For image processing, it can be deduced that the resolution of the cameras used, the working distance as well as the illumination can be regarded as constant parameters.

Based on the aforementioned prior art, it is an object of the invention to provide a central band system of the type mentioned, with a simple design and simple control means almost 100 percent control of chaotically arranged items directly on the system, namely on the current central belt allows.

The problem underlying the invention is solved by a central band system of the type specified in claim 1. Advantageous developments emerge from the claims 2 to 10.

The essence of the central band system according to the invention is that for the articles to be controlled on the moving central belt an automatic control system connected to the central control unit with connected image processing unit is provided by a variable adjustable camera system optionally together with variable adjustable lighting system in the region of the central band end with secure data is fed by isolated items to be controlled, the camera system and optionally the lighting system are set and configured and the controlled to be checked on the central belt chaotically arranged items are ejected or delivered by the ejectors so that optical shadowing of the controlled article on the central belt preferably just prevented.

In particular, the time interval of the ejection times of the articles from the ejection ducts calculated by the automatic control system is selected so that the articles preferably lie on the central belt at a distance just as far apart that no optical shadowing occurs.

By the invention high quality requirements of a control of articles are met. Any errors caused by the picking system itself are detected directly on the system. This avoids rising error costs. Furthermore, various information of articles can be reliably detected by the invention, such. As serial numbers, expiration dates and batch information, condition of the packaging, integrity of the packaging and possibly other quality features.

The invention will not article heaps are formed as in the above-mentioned prior art on the running central belt, but the articles are supplied sporadically, in a way that on the one hand all information of each article from the camera system is visible, but nevertheless the Articles are not overly spaced so as not to take up too much space on the running center band.

This is achieved by the criterion according to the invention that straight shadowing on the article to be checked is prevented. In order to be able to recognize articles optimally, a shadow of a neighbor article thrown on an article to be checked is disadvantageous. For a good capture of Information on the article to be controlled depends crucially on the brightness.

Thus, according to the invention, the distance of the ejection times calculated by the central belt control system is chosen so that the articles come to lie so far apart that no optical shadowing occurs. These distances depend on the physical dimensions of the articles. Master data of the items in stock are specifically extended to those of the optical shadowing. The central band control system takes this data into account in its calculation of the ideal ejection time. As a result, it can be symbolically achieved that small articles can be ejected closer to one another on the central belt than large articles whose shadowing is greater.

A combination with the previous ejection of articles in a heap and the specific separation of those articles that must be subjected to quality control is possible. The information necessary for this decision will be made available to the Central Band Control System by the higher level management system or the central control unit.

In particular, it is provided to additionally or exclusively dynamically change the speed of the central belt in order to ensure a variable article distance as a function of the shadowing.

The ejection accuracy also depends on the weight of the item. The ejectors of the central band are expediently set in their acceleration so that the articles of the left article shafts of the central band system on the left side of the central band and the articles of the right article shafts of the central band system come to the right of the central band.

Preferably, a longitudinal ridge is provided in the middle of the central band to prevent slipping ejected articles on the other side with certainty.

Frequently, articles will come to rest on the central band so that the information to be determined (barcode, integrity, etc.) is on the bottom of the article. Thus, this information is hidden by the central band. For this reason, immediately after the central belt, cameras are preferably installed and configured to read the information on the bottom of the articles when the articles following a trajectory, or slipping on an inclined plane, fall into the order container or other withdrawing system. slip.

In order to ensure the integrity of packaging, various seals are checked for their integrity according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. Some of these seals are only visible in the context of a defined light frequency and thus to check their integrity.

Although the articles will come to rest in defined areas (within a known start and end position on the center band and at a defined distance from each other on the central band), the articles may still be chaotic within these ranges In order to be able to differentiate in the image processing unit whether an article has been recorded several times or whether it is a matter of several articles, preferably the physical flow of goods of all articles is monitored and in particular In order to fulfill this requirement, two basic information must be transmitted to the image processing unit:

- The position in the space of the cameras to each other

Thus, taking into account the angles between the cameras, a distinction can be made as to whether two different cameras are tracking an object from different perspectives or whether they are multiple objects.

- The speed of the central band

Taking the speed into account, the cameras of the camera system can then also be synchronized with one another, since the image processing unit can predict the appearance of an article in a camera if the same article is involved.

A further embodiment according to the invention is characterized in that a detection of a physical empty area between two order picking orders is made. Without any additional infrastructure, the camera system can be used to detect the empty area between two jobs as physically empty at the central belt. This ensures that the ejector of the central belt system has not ejected erroneously without an order, or that an article has come to lie in an unauthorized area of the central belt due to "leaping".

It can also be provided that, in a central belt system, only the data stream of a picking order from the camera of the Camera system is recorded, which has detected the data stream first. In order to be able to carry out the correctness of a picking order in retrospect, it is expedient to record the data stream of the camera system for later use, which was responsible for finding the quality feature (barcode, integrity, etc.). By selecting the data streams, the memory requirement drops to the data stream of a camera.

Further advantageous features of the invention will become apparent from the following description in which preferred embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail with reference to the drawings; show it:

1 a central band system of a picking system in a schematic perspective broken view,

2 the central band system after 1 with camera and lighting unit in greater detail,

3 the circuit arrangement of the central band system according to 1 and 2 with central band, camera system, central control unit and automatic control system, and

4 another alternative detail of the central band in a schematic plan view.

As shown in drawings, a central band system 1 an order picking A-shaped arranged article shafts 2 with a bottom side intermediate central band 4 on, the conveying direction in the direction of a peeling transverse container conveyor technology 3 runs, being ejector 5 the article shafts from a central control unit 7 ' be timely activated so that all items that belong to a picking order, collected on the central belt in a virtual window and optionally with the interposition of a riser in an associated order container 7 the container conveyor technology are delivered.

For items to be checked on the moving central belt 4 is one with the central control unit 6 related automatic control system 7 ' with connected image processing unit 8th provided by a variable adjustable camera system 9 . 10 together with variable adjustable lighting system 11 in the area of the central band end, it is fed with safe data from articles to be checked.

The camera system 9 . 10 and the lighting system 11 are set and it will be controlled on the central band 4 chaotically arranged items from the ejectors 5 so ejected that mutual optical shadowing of adjacent articles on the central band 4 just prevented.

In particular, the time interval is that of the automatic control system 7 ' calculated ejection times of the articles from the discharge chutes 2 so chosen that the articles are spaced so far apart on the central band 4 come to lie that there is no optical shadowing.

It may be the conveying speed of the central band 4 additionally or exclusively dynamically changed in order to ensure a variable article distance as a function of the shadowing.

The acceleration of the ejector 5 is set so that the ejected articles of a row of article shaft in one of these shaft row facing virtual window of a central band half 13 and the ejected articles of the opposite article shaft row in one of these opposite shaft row facing virtual windows of the other central belt half 14 to come to rest, like this 4 shows, preferably so that the individual ejected articles of one shaft row with respect to the individual ejected articles of the other shaft row offset to come to rest on the central belt. The staggered arrangement prevents mutual shadowing.

In the middle of the central band 4 according to embodiment of the 4 is optional (depending on whether the item properties require it) a longitudinal ridge 15 To prevent slipping ejected articles on the other longitudinal side of the central belt with certainty.

Immediately after the central band 4 are according to the embodiment according to 2 cameras 10 of the camera system 9 . 10 installed and configured so that the bottom information of the articles are read when following a trajectory into the positioned order container 7 falling on the hauling tank conveyor technique 3 is provided.

The items can take a trajectory at an incline in the order container 7 slip.

There is a review of the packaging of the articles by checking various seals for their integrity using a defined light frequency instead.

The physical flow of articles is tracked by photography.

There is also a detection of a physical empty area between two picking jobs.

It is only the data stream of a picking order from that camera of the camera system 9 . 10 recorded, which has detected the data stream.

In detail, the technical system is structured as follows:
A variable number of cameras 9 . 10 so become the end of the central band 4 mounted so that they can record the data to be captured. The challenge now lies in the fact that the exact position of the article at the central belt is not known. Furthermore, it is not known where on the article the information to be checked is appropriate.

For the sake of simplicity, one can imagine the acquisition of a data matrix barcode here. However, the described solution is more comprehensive. It is also possible to determine the integrity of a package.

To enable the collection of the Data Matrix barcodes, the following must be ensured:
The distance d of the articles on the central band 4 has to be increased a little bit. In particular, it must be ensured that the distance d between the articles is selected so that the resulting optical shadows do not prevent the detection of the bar codes of a subsequent article.

Occasionally it may happen that the article is so on the central band 4 it comes to rest, its barcode from the central band 4 itself is covered. That is why it is appropriate cameras 10 so also at the end of the center band, that the bar code is read in the short window of time, while the article following a trajectory (or slipping on an incline) falls into the order container. The order container may be a conveyor-type container, or a hopper or an alternative withdrawal unit, such as another belt system.

conditions:

The moving articles are to be captured so camera-technically that clear non-blurry images in the image processing unit 8th reach.

The lighting system 11 is to be so variable that, depending on the information to be recorded (barcode, integrity, condition of the packaging, etc.), the right frequency spectrum is sent out. Thus, any damage to a seal can only be detected under a certain frequency spectrum (as in the case of checking a bank note under UV light).

• – die Bildinformation jeder einzelnen Kamera so getestet, um sicherzustellen, dass die geometrische Anordnung, Schärfentiefe und Fokus richtig eingestellt sind. Im Falle einer Fehlkonfiguration wird der Person der Inbetriebnahme optisch und akustisch durch die Bildverarbeitungseinheit 8 aufgefordert, die angezeigten Anpassungen vorzunehmen.
• – Das Beleuchtungssystem 11 wird seine unterschiedlichen Frequenzspektren nach und nach aktivieren, um sicherzustellen, dass die Bildinformation vom kalibrierten Referenzobjekt erfasst werden können.

Both the number and the geometric arrangement of the cameras as well as their optical adjustment with respect to depth of field and focus are very complex in the context of this task. In order to be able to ensure commissioning by a user of the central belt system with reasonable effort, a self-test procedure is integrated into the technical system. The self-test procedure provides that a calibrated reference object (such as a cube of known dimensions and defined imprints) is placed in the visual field of the technical system for initial configuration. via the image processing unit 8th will now:

• - Tested the image information of each individual camera to make sure that the geometry, depth of field and focus are set correctly. In the case of a misconfiguration, the person being commissioned is visually and acoustically through the image processing unit 8th prompted to make the adjustments shown.
• - The lighting system 11 will gradually activate its different frequency spectrums to ensure that the image information can be captured by the calibrated reference object.

After calibration, a structured light is projected onto the central belt by the technical system. The cameras of the camera system record this structured information and place the results in the image processing unit 8th from. In normal operation, the structured light is not projected. During defined self-test phases, the structured light is projected again and captured by the camera system. The comparison with the stored reference data provides information on whether a trouble-free operation is possible and is used as a basis for decision for status messages of the technical system. Depending on the status message, the system is stopped and a message is sent to the system 6 transmitted.

The following describes how it works.

In operation, a data processing system transmits in the form of a central control unit 6 , which controls the flow of goods in a warehouse and manages inventory in the warehouse - in some cases it is a system, sometimes these functions are performed by two separate systems, one or more orders to the control system 7 ' of the central band system 1 , This prepares the orders so that articles from the manholes 2 at the right time on the central band 4 be ejected. The control system of the central band 4 knows the physical first and last position at the central band 4 which belongs to this order and transmits these items to the control system of the image processing unit 8th , The image processing unit 8th receives the image data from the camera system 9 . 10 , decodes the required quality assurance data and conditions (barcode, condition of the packaging, counting, integrity of the packaging, etc.), assigns these to the control system of the central band 4 submitted order and returns the read decoded information back to selbiges. The qualitative decision as to whether the transmitted order data correspond with the quality assurance data read is the responsibility of the central control system 4 , It is responsible for the control system of the central band 4 to make the decision yourself, or again to the parent data processing system, the central control unit 6 to delegate.

During operation, between the central band control system 7 ' and the image processing unit 8th constantly a commissioning signal ("Heartbeat" signal) exchanged in milliseconds. This will ensure that the image processing unit 8th is in operation and the data connection between the image processing unit 8th and central band control system 7 ' is functional.

Startup phase:

During the startup phase, the camera system checks itself 9 . 10 even by projecting a structured light onto the empty surface of the central band. The projection is optically recorded by the cameras and with the stored data in the image processing unit 8th compared. If the image information differs only slightly or not at all (the value of the agreement can be set by the user), the system is considered to be calibrated and can take up the function.

• – Abstandsminimierung abhängig von Artikelgeometrie und Kameraposition
• – Detektion der Unterseite der Artikel
• – Selbsttestmöglichkeit mit einem kalibrierten Referenzobjekt (Belichtung, Schärfentiefe, Kameraposition)
• – Doppellesung eines Codes: Warenfluss wird fotographisch verfolgt
• – Für Reklamationen: Nur der Datenstrom aus der Kamera, die den Code erkannt hat, wird gespeichert

By the invention, therefore, a nearly 100 percent control on the current central belt is possible, in particular by

• - Distance minimization depending on article geometry and camera position
• - Detection of the bottom of the article
• - Self-test option with a calibrated reference object (exposure, depth of field, camera position)
• - Double reading of a code: Goods flow is photographically tracked
• - For complaints: Only the data stream from the camera that recognized the code is saved

Claims (10)

Central band system ( 1 ) a picking system, preferably with A-shaped arranged article shafts ( 2 ) and in the direction of a withdrawing container conveyor technique ( 3 ) moving central band ( 4 ), where ejector ( 5 ) of the article shafts from a central control unit ( 6 ) are activated in a timely manner so that all articles which belong to a picking order are collected on the central belt in a virtual window and, if appropriate, with the interposition of a riser belt into an assigned order container ( 7 ) of the container conveyor technology, characterized in that for articles to be controlled on the moving central belt ( 4 ) with the central control unit ( 6 ) associated automatic control system ( 7 ' ) with connected image processing unit ( 8th ) provided by a variable adjustable camera system ( 9 . 10 ) optionally together with a variable adjustable illumination system ( 11 ) in the area of the central band end is fed with secure data of articles to be checked, the camera system ( 9 . 10 ) and, where appropriate, the lighting system ( 11 ) are set and configured and the central band to be controlled ( 4 ) chaotically arranged articles from the ejectors ( 5 ) are ejected or handed over in such a way that optical shadowing on the article to be inspected on the central belt ( 4 ) is preferably just prevented. Central band system according to claim 1, characterized in that the time interval of the automatic control system ( 7 ' ) calculated ejection times of the articles from the discharge chutes ( 2 ) is selected so that the articles at a distance (d) so far apart on the central band ( 4 ) come to lie that there is no optical shadowing. Central band system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the conveying speed of the central band ( 4 ) is additionally or exclusively dynamically changed in order to ensure a variable article distance as a function of the shading. Central band system according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the acceleration of the ejector ( 5 ) is set so that the ejected articles of an article shaft row in one of these shaft row facing virtual window of a central band half ( 13 ) and the ejected articles of the opposite article shaft row in one of these opposite shaft row facing virtual windows of the other central band half ( 14 ) come to rest. Central band system according to claim 5, characterized in that in the middle of the central band ( 4 ) a longitudinal web ( 15 ) is arranged to prevent slipping ejected articles on the other longitudinal side of the central belt with certainty. Central band system according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that immediately after the central band ( 4 ) Cameras ( 10 ) of the camera system ( 9 . 10 ) are installed and configured so that the information on the bottom side of the articles is read when the articles following a trajectory or slipping on an inclined plane into the order container ( 7 ) or another peeling system fall or slip. Central band system according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a review of the packaging of the article by checking various seals on their integrity is preferably carried out using a defined light frequency. Central band system according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the physical flow of articles is photographically tracked. Central band system according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that a detection of a physical empty area between two picking orders is made. Central band system according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that only the data stream of a picking order from that camera of the camera system ( 9 . 10 ), which first recognized the data stream.

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